CT 1000, 1945: Eastern Region, Eastern Pennsylvania Division, Philadelphia Division
Philadelphia Division ETT, 1954: Eastern Region, Philadelphia Division, Main Line
Valuation Maps
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On the leader to the Cumberland Valley Branch. Distance is from Harrisburg Station.
0.4 Appleby Bros. & Whittacker
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On the main line. Direction is south (railroad east) to north (railroad west). Milepost reference from Philadelphia via Mt. Joy...
101.8 Lochief Siding
102.2 Central Iron & Steel Co. Nos. 5, 6 & 7
102.2 Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8
102.2 Jackson Manufacturing Co.
102.8 Central Iron & Steel Co. -- Paxton Furnaces Nos. 1 & 2
102.9 Central Iron & Steel Co. No. 3
102.9 Central Iron & Steel Co. No. 4
102.9 Dock Street
102.9 Junc. Steelton Canal Branch
102.9 Leroy Roofing Co.
102.9 Carload Delivery
103.1 Herwitz Packing Co.
103.6 Marshall Street Siding
103.7 Tulsa Oil Co.
103.8 U. S. Government No. 6
104.0 Sinclair Refining Co. No. 2
104.5 Carload Delivery Siding
104.6 Steelton Freight Station
103.1 Junc. Old Line
103.2 Storage
103.3 Bell Telephone No. 2
103.5 Carload Delivery
103.7 Freight Car Siding
103.3 R. Hershel Mfg. Co.
103.3 Air Reduction Co.
103.4 V. D. Leisure
1937 valuation map of MP 103.5.
Annotated valuation map. |
Sanborn map of the area described below. East is to the bottom; west to the top. |
103.5 Paxton Flour & Feed Co. and Harrisburg Storage Co.
Harrisburg Storage is clearly shown on page 74 of Morning Sun Book's "Hudson to Horseshoe". The building is on east edge of siding and tight against the main lines. A later Sanborn, oddly, shows the entire area (inclusive of the Paxton Mills and several other entities) as being part of Harrisburg Storage... but yet still a subset of the area claimed by the McCormick Estate on the valuation map! It may be one and the same as a modern day operation at 165 Lamont St. New Cumberland, PA 17070. 717-774-7838.
The 1930 Polk City directory places (p. 310) Paxton Flour & Feed Co. at "South 2nd Street" and the (p. 486) Harrisburg Storage Co. at "South 2nd Street at PRR".
Paxton Flour & Feed Co. was gone by 1954, but was also on the Second Street side. It looks like they shared a siding. Paxton Flour & Feed Co. was on the site marked on the valuation map as McCormick Estate.
"The Paxton and Steelton Flouring Mill Company was incorporated in February, 1891, for the manufacture of high grade flour, assuming control at once, through a lease for a term of years, of the Paxton Flour Mills, of Harrisburg, and the Steelton Flouring Mills, of Steelton. The Paxton Mills, owned by the estate of James McCormick, dec'd, in 1862 succeeded the Eagle Mills, and increased its daily capacity from fifteen barrels to one hundred barrels. In 1879 the old frame building was torn down, and the present large stone mill erected and fitted out for the burr process, with a daily capacity of 350 barrels, but in 1880 the mill was changed from the old burr process to the new roller process - being the first mill in Pennsylvania to adopt the roller process - with a daily capacity of 500 barrels; since then the capacity has been gradually increased to meet the demands of its trade, until it is now 750 barrels. The leading brands of this mill are "Paxton" and "Hoffer's Best", which have been on the local markets since 1868. The entire plant at the Paxton Mills consists of engine and boiler house, 40x40, and mill proper, 64x85m five stories high, warehouse, 64x85, one story high, all built of heavy limestone; elevator, six stories high, built of stone and slated frame, with capacity of 80,000 bushels. Also a cooper plant, consisting of a stock house, 50x120, two stories high; two barrel houses with a storage capacity of 15,000 barrels; a factory 30x120, fitted up with the most improved machinery, with a daily capacity of 1,500 barrels."
A Reading Company map that pre-dates the valuation map indicates an additional siding into the site. The later Sanborn map shows it as well, but no note as to use or owner.
103.5 Kinney Shoe Co.
Second Street side; shown on valuation map and the later Sanborn map. This is the building that was later a warehouse for Gable's (hardware) and is now occupied by Pinnacle Health Systems.
103.5 Kingan Provision Co.
Second Street side; shown on the later Sanborn map.
The 1930 Polk City directory places (p. 372) Kingan Provision Co. at "421-425 S. 2nd Street" and indicates they are "Pork and beef packers."
103.5 J. I. Case Co.
Second Street side; shown on the later Sanborn map.
The 1930 Polk City directory places (p. 171) J. I. Case & Co. at "21 N. 9th Street", as a vendor of agricultural implements. Since this location is actually west of Herr Street, the business must have moved prior to the 1945 CT1000.
103.5 Harrisburg Freight Station and Keystone Warehouse Co. No. 1
Second Street side. The later Sanborn map identifies "Keystone Warehouse Co." as a formal name for the PRR freight warehouse.
The 1930 Polk City directory places (p. 370) Keystone Warehouse Co. at "201 S. 2nd Street".
Other documentation suggests sublets to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and the Harrisburg Warehouse Co.
103.7 Harrisburg Gas Co.
Second Street side, in "island" between mains and REA/freight facilities.
103.8 Passenger Station
Why recreate the wheel? In 2016, the booklet "Harrisburg Train Station -- Transforming an Enduring Landmark into a Modern Multimodal Transportation Center" was published by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration (FTA); the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PHMC); and the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak).
The booklet provides and excellent history of the current and two preceeding stations at Harrisburg.
103.8 "State" Interlocking
STATE tower was located within the physical building of the Harrisburg Passenger Station. It controlled movements at the eastward end of the station.
103.8 Junc. Reading Co.
Annotated valuation map.
Sanborn maps of the area described below. East is at the bottom; west to the top.
103.9 Keystone Warehouse Co. No. 2
"Keystone Warehouse Co." was a formal name for the PRR's freight warehouses. This warehouse does not appear on the later Sanborn maps, nor is it in the 1949 or 1954 Polk directories, so it must have been razed prior.
104.0 Montgomery & Co.
Downtown side, on siding right next to HARRIS tower. Have 1929 photo showing box cars spotted there.
The 1930 Polk City directory places (p. 453) Montgomery & Co. at "627 Walnut Street" and indicates this is a warehouse for "storage, drayage, transfer and distribution."
Witman-Schwarz Co. was on the same siding but beyond Montgomery & Co., near where the Adams Express once was (1895 Sanborn map). As Fred Wertz pointed out, the later Sanborn indicates the address contributed to the parking lot where the gas station was more recently; then replaced by the Forum Place building.
The 1930 Polk City directory places (p. 660) Witman-Schwarz Corp. "in liquidation" at "615 Walnut Street".
The Sanborn maps, combined with the city directories, place the following businesses at a string of addresses:
601-607 - Keystone Oil Products (the gas station)
619 - Alexandre, Jules, Inc. (radio sets and supplies); Jacob Miller Inc. (furniture warehouse) home appliance warehouse (aerial photo shows billboard on roof that reads "Crosly", which is a brand of automobile, appliances, and radio network; and Pierce Phelps.
625 - Herbert H. Fidler (agricultural implements); and Montgomery & Co. (storage warehouse & trucking)
627 - Paul L. Schubauer (hardware wholesaler).
629 - Montgomery & Co. (warehouse); Philadelphia Seed Co.; Proctor & Gamble (warehouse); Eastern Chemical Corp.; and The DuBois Co. (wholesale chemicals).
104.0 "Harris" Tower
104.0 Market Street Delivery
Cameron Street side.
104.0 Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. No. 9
Cameron Street side. Elec. Supplies Warehouse on later Sanborn map, near Pa. State Bureau of Publication building. (PP&L has three sidings - 9, 10, 11 - in this area on the 1945 CT1000. There is no way to really know which is which. In the 1923 CT1000 this was the Hbg. Light & Power Co. with sidings numbered 1 & 3.
104.0 Pennsylvania State Bureau of Publication
Cameron Street side. Bob Lyter confirmed the building was on the corner of 10th and Market streets; its back side permits entry of rail service across 9th Street. Later Sanborn maps confirm this.
104.0 Pennsylvania Power & Light No. 10
104.0 Pennsylvania Power & Light No. 11
104.0 Passenger Car Storage
Annotated valuation map.
104.0 Harrisburg Steel Corp. No. 1
Previously Harrisburg Pipe & Pipe Bending Co.
Cameron Street side. Trestle, visible on Sanborn maps partially remains; I have photos. This trestle appears in the background of a photo on page 100 of Pennsy Diesel Years 6 -- there appears to be a four-bay hopper, a covered hopper, and a box car spotted on the trestle. The very end of the trestle can be viewed in the background of a shot on page 46 of Pennsy Steam Years. Another photo appears on page 62 of Pennsy Steam Years 2 and provides a nice backdrop of the Harrisburg Steel sign with a Reading covered hopper on the trestle.
Later known as HARSCO.
104.2 Harrisburg Steel Corp. No. 2
104.2 North Street Delivery
Downtown side. Included a gantry. Located between the main line and the Swift plant.
1951 view shows the gantry at North Street Delivery.
104.2 Swift & Co. No 1 and United Ice & Coal Co. No. 1
Downtown side.
And where were the stock pens for the Swift plant? I suspect that they might be what the Sanborn map labels as "Tankage"... due to its proximity to the slaughterhouse portion of the plant and rail access. Ken Britton recalls them being right along 7th Street, but doesn't know for sure.
The Swift plant shows a "coal pile" on the 1956 Sanborn. How was the coal delivered... truck, rail? Was there a coal dump underneath one of the spurs?
United Ice & Coal was gone by 1954. The 1949 Polk city directory lists other locations, but none in this area.
1929 Sanborn shows Milleisens Coal & Wood Yard, obviously the predecessor to United Ice & Coal, occupying 817-931 N. 7th Street. Central Contruction & Supply Co. occupies the area of 943 N. 7th Street.
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104.2 American Rag & Metal Co.
Downtown side.
104.2 Simon Michlovitz
While connection was at this location, the siding extended (railroad) west to 1127 North 7th Street. Business was actually named Commonwealth Junk Co., owned by Simon Michlovitz.
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Annotated valuation map.
104.5 Herr Street
104.5 Herr Street -- Carload Delivery and Carload Delivery Trestle
104.6 Harrisburg Shop
From "Harrisburg Engine Facilities", Rails Northeast, August 1976:
"Harrisburg, Pa. western terminus of over 2200 miles of electrified operations was the natural location for new diesel engine facilities when the PRR began to invest heavily in diesel electric motive power used in east-west passenger operations. Counterpart to the Harrisburg facilities for maintaining freight diesel power is the nearly identical facility at Enola across the river. The $3-5 million dollar facility was designed to service some 125 units consisting of a four track light repair section for inspection and servicing and a heavy repair section with three repair tracks and a wheel recease track.
"The facility lies between McClay and State streets a mile from the Harrisburg Station and directly west of the 30 stall enginehouse built in 1937. The diesel house is a steel frame and brick veneer structure 200' wide and 268' in length. A 97' wide by 102' long extension one story high is connected to the east end of the heavy repair section. It houses a machine shop, offices, and storage facilities. The heavy repair portion of the building is 51' high compared to the light repair portion of the building rising 35'. The light running repair portion of the building are through tracks while the heavy section are stub end type.
"The diesel shop is connected to the roundhouse by an enclosed walkway. With the future for the steam engine greatly reduced four of the stalls in the roundhouse were converted to a storage area.
"Fueling, sanding, water, wash and rinse facilities are on the north side of the shop. Fuel storage tanks west of the shop can hold 735,000 gallons.
"An inbound engine moves west from the station to the service racks. Once fueled, watered, washed it is moved west to clear the switch and reversed moving it wast to the light repair and inspection station where they are gone over thoroughly. If the unit passes inspection it is moved outside for dispatching to the passenger station.
"The light repair side of the shop is arranged to permit adequate work access. Tracks are 23'8" to 28' apart. The four running repair tracks are elevated 30" above the floor service supported on H-beams set at 5' intervals. An inspection pit runs beneath the running track nearly the length of the shop. 230' deck level platforms 4'8" above the rail are placed on each side of the running repair tracks with varying width. They run the entire length of the building.
"Platforms of concrete slab form are placed between tracks 1 & 2 and between 3 & 4. They are level with the diesel roof eliminating the need for maintenance people to have to climb on the roof. They run lengthwise and are 179' long not quite as long as their lower deck level platform counterpart. Stairways connect all levels at each end. Draw bridges are provided at the east end enabling movement between the various platforms. Each running track has a one ton traveling crane which traverses the length of each running track and can be operated from the deck facilitating the removal of roof hatch covers, changing pistons and light maintenance.
"The heavy repair section holds trsacks 5 through 8. These are all of the stub end type. Tracks 5 & 8 are elevated like those in the light running repair section. The balance of the floor in the heavy repair section is at track level. Track 5 & 8 also has the various platform levels found in the running repair shop. Repairs are done st tracks 5, 7 & 8 while track 6 id used to hold wheel sets and exchange trucks. The track to hold wheels and trucks is stub ended 54' west of the building. Two 30 ton capacity service cranes are on rasils overhead, one over tracks 5 & 6 and the other for 7 & 8. Each 30 ton crane has a 10 ton auxilisry hoist.
"Track 6 has four 50 ton body jacks and a 54" wheel lathe. To change wheels and trucks a drop pit 23'9" wide and 22' deep extends the width of the shop at the west wall side. The pit has two drop tables with cradles.
"Flourescent lighting runs the length of running repair tracks beneath the deck level to illuminate under body of power. 400 watt mercury vapor lamps and 1500 watt incandescent lamps provide and almost day light condition regardless of time or outside conditions.
"Lower parts of the building walls, roof support columns, platform posts, and rail supports are painted dark green to a level of 4 feet. Above this level including the ceilings and walls, are painted light pastel green. All moving machinery, handrails are painted focal yellow while pipes are painted various colors designating purpose.
"Radiant heating is extensively used with pipes embedded in the concrete floor levels. Blast heaters are employed above ground level just beneath platform deck. They serve to pump fresh air as well as force warmed air for heating purposes. Grid heaters are counted appropriately to buffet cold air that might enter when the doors are rolled up to permit movement of diesels to and from the outside.
"Ventilation is through 10 48" fans over the heavy repair shop. 40 36" fans, 10 over each track are used in the light repair section.
"The service rack centers between two tracks on a 19' center base. At the esast end is a sand plant holding 75 tons of wet sand and 40 tons of dry sand. A skip hoist delivers wet sand to an overhead bin where a steam dryer drys and screens the sand.
"Six fueling points 30' to 35' apart make up the fuel and water station. Each fueling point has a cluster of 5 pipes: two wster, two oil, and one fire foam. Fuel can be pumped on at the rate of 1,000 gallons per minute. Two washers and two rinsing machines complete the service rack at the west end.
"Up to 335,000 gallons of fuel is stored in five steel storage tanks each holding 67,000 gallons. Oil is delivered by tank car to a 6 position two track unloading station.
"Two larger fuel tanks have been built nearby as support storage to hold over 2 million gallons of fuel.
"When merger took place E-units of the NYC were serviced mostly at Collinwood in Cleveland while Pennsylvania were handled at Harrisburg. Within the past couple years we have seen the shifting of servicing E units from Collinwood to Harrisburg concurrent with the decline of passenger train services and retiring worn out power. Today Harrisburg services the shrinking list of E7 & E8 both railroad owned and those bought by Amtrak. Another 25 SD-45's and 45 SD-40's call Harrisburg home along with a hand full of yard engines. The shop has plenty to do with power exchange or set outs from through trains bypassing Enola through Harrisburg.
"The roundhouse is used to store and service power now that there is no need to perform steam engine engine servicing [steam locomotive use ceased in 1957 - Ed]. The roundhouse, far from its inspection appearance of 1937 today is dressed with the sears of age and lack of upkeep.
"Only East Altoona (264), Enolda (169), could handle more steam locomotives than Harrisburg's capacity of 166 in 1946. A 750 ton concrete coal wharf straddled three outbound steam engine tracks while three tenders could be losded within three to five minutes. Three buckets, each holding 63 cubit feet, served the wharf by loading and storing 120 tons of coal an hour. 75 tons of wet sand and 15 tons of dry sand could also be stored at this wharf.
"The roundhouse, a brick structure built in 1937, consisted of 30 stalls, 12 of which were 140' long and 18 120' long. Each stall had a work pit the length of the stall. Four stalls adjacent to the machine shop were equipped with two 80 ton drop tables. It had one of the only two 125' turntables on the system with the other being installed at East Altoona.
"Inbound steam engines were inspected on three 130' inspection pits, then moved to the two 220' wall ash pits where fires were cleared and then moved to the 125' wash platform where the engine was cleaned. The engine was moved to the turntable and either put to bed in the house or moved to one of three work pits: two 130' and 1 200' pit when making repairs underneath the steaam engine. The storage yard held 73 steam engines."
The Harrisburg Shops were razed in the early 1980s.
Regarding the Harrisburg coal wharf demolition, Bill Volkmer relates...
"The date was Tuesday October 30, 1962. I remember it well as it scared the begeezes out of half the residents of the city. First a word about the national news on TV that dark and chilly evening. For several days running up to the moment, all we saw on the TV news was that President Kennedy was having a verbal war with Fidel Castro and Castro had a bunch of Russian missles down in Cuba aimed northward, so everybody was 'on edge' hoping World War III wasn't about to begin.
"On that evening my wife was 8.75 months pregnant and I was working the daylight shift at Enola EH so we decided to motor down to Market Street about 7 PM (it was already pitch dark) to view the town's Halloween Parade.
"So here we were standing on a curb about a half mile at the most from Riley Street where the coal wharf was located when all of a sudden a loud boom of explosives went off. The resulting vibration set off the air raid sirens and because I was an employee of the railroad, I knew instantly what the source of the noise was since I'd been aware they were working on that project, but had no idea when they were going to set it off.
"Well, let me tell you, at that very moment half the city of Harrisburg had a collective heart attack and people were running around like crazy looking for a sewer grate to jump into.
"To tell you the truth, I don't remember a thing about the parade, but I sure remember the event!" -- WKV
104.6 Max Cohen
104.9 New Idea Spreader Co.
104.8 Harrisburg Steel Corp. No. 3 and Defense Plant Corp.
104.8 Harrisburg Building Block Co.
104.8 B. Abrams & Son
104.8 Arnold Coal Co.
105.0 International Harvester Co. Inc.
Cameron Street side.
The 1930 Polk City directory places (p. 348) International Harvester at "813-815 Market Street". The later Sanborn maps clearly show this address served only by the Reading Railroad. However, served by the PRR a block to the northwest is a warehouse labeled "Farm Equip". May have been a second location.
105.0 Harrisburg Grocery Co.
105.2 Maclay Street
105.2 Scales
105.2 Delivery
105.3 Hbg. State Hospital
105.6 Pennsylvania State Farm Show
105.3 Maclay Street Freight Station and American Oil Co. No. 2
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105.3 Wilsbach & Co.
105.4 Stock Yard Delivery
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105.5 United Ice & Coal Co. No. 2
105.5 Atlantic Refining Co. No. 3
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